Land Usage & Urban form / Food

Gene Miller was the first guest of the morning. He is from the Center for Urban Innovation. I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation, although Rick Kool didn’t seem to agree with it, and vocalized his displeasure , after Gene had left the room.

Gene Miller was more a “doom and gloom” type guy. I found his outlook to be very refreshing compared to the usual tripe of rainbows, butterflies, and sustainability, that we are normally fed with. Gene discussed late stage capitalism and how it has effected our ability to resilient to change.

I completely agree with Gene and his viewpoint. Our society has become too reliant on technology to supply our needs, be it transportation, food, or environmental, at the cost of our planet. Gene summed up his viewpoints and presentation with one interesting quote A quote that Gene said sums climate change very appropriately; “The metabolism of our economy is on a collision course with the metabolism of our planet”

I feel this is a very true quote. Gene is describing our increasing consumption habits, and need to drive the economy, being in conflict with the “synergy” of the planet. Oil is being removed from the planet much faster then it is being replenished, regardless if someone subscribes to the abiotic oil theory, or the conventional dead dinosaur theory.

We then heard from Cindy Moyer of Colwood Climate Action and Jennifer Girard of Capital Families who both discussed issues of bringing food security to the Colwood community and surrounding areas. Food security and community resistance go hand in hand. In order a community to be sustainable, food needs to be at the top of the list, since people eat 3-5 meals per day.

One way of increasing food security is to use available land for food, similar to the Green Belt in Ontario he B.C was a pioneer in this idea, using the ALR, Agricultural Land Reserve, which set aside 4.7 million hectares in 1976. This is a good way of preserving existing farm land, but doesn’t address what can be done at a local level.

Jennifer Girard of Capital Families, introduced the idea of the Gardening Neighbourhood Project. This will allow people who want to get involved with growing their on food, but are unfamiliar with how to implement it, to contact an experienced gardener to guide them and help them set up the garden. I feel this an excellent idea to start people thinking about local food and actually implementing small scale gardens which will help contribute to sustainability.